It’s been an exciting year in copyright law, with important precedents set on fair use protections for books and electronic reserves, contradictory signals on the limits of copyrights, and continuing clashes between copyright and free speech.

Electronic Frontier Foundation Legal Director Corynne McSherry will discuss the leading decisions, their potential implications for libraries and their patrons, and what you need to know about what’s coming down the pike. McSherry will discuss how recent court decisions—Georgia State, HathiTrust, Google Books—have interpreted fair use and the implications for education, research and equitable access.

Librarians defend privacy on the grounds that one's intellectual activity should be free from surveillance. Now legal scholars and advocates are now championing the notion that in a free society, anyone should be able to read, learn, and debate without being monitored and recorded. Professor Neil Richards will explain the importance of 'intellectual privacy,' the right to be protected from surveillance or interference when we are engaged in reading or thinking, and how pervasive online tracking and data collection has made protection of intellectual privacy an imperative. EFF senior attorney David Greene will review the federal government’s suspicionless surveillance programs, EFF’s First Amendment lawsuits challenging these programs, and what opportunities exist for grass roots advocacy. We’ll close with a lively discussion about what librarians can do and are doing to protect reader privacy and end unjustified surveillance.

Neil Richards is a professor of law at Washington University and an internationally-recognized expert in privacy law, information law, and freedom of expression. Following the program, Professor Richards will be signing copies of his new book, "Intellectual Privacy: Rethinking Civil Liberties in the Digital Age" (Oxford Press 2015).

David Greene is Senior Staff Attorney and Civil Liberties Director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. He has significant experience litigating First Amendment issues in state and federal courts and is one of the country's leading advocates for freedom of expression in the arts.

Today, more than 90% of Americans watch over 40 billion online videos each month. This session explores some big questions: Why, despite this statistic, do we still see such limited use of and innovation in online video on campuses? What is the opportunity for Patron-Driven-Acquisition models for online video? And, how can we most effectively deploy online video to heighten awareness and use with our patrons?

Travel “In the Wake of the Whaler" and enrich your store of primary resources in support of the Common Core from NEH's EDSITEment (AASL Best Website for Teaching and Learning) and Mystic Seaport for Educators! Uncover a treasure trove of artifacts with interdisciplinary classroom applications exploring America's identity and worldview as shaped by our whaling heritage. Engage in hands-on activities with Librarian-Program Specialist, Shelley NiTuama and Manager of Digital Education Initiatives, Krystal Rose.

Think Shark Tank, the popular TV show that features aspiring entrepreneurs pitching their business idea to a panel of potential investors. In YALSA’s version, library staff pitch their ideas to a group of sharks made up of tech entrepreneurs, educators, and library staff. Come learn about the programs that made it to the finals and listen to the feedback from YALSA’s group of Sharks: Susan Del Rosario, Senior Director of Library Programs, Tutor.com; Crystle Martin, Post-Doctoral Researcher, UC Irvine; K-Fai Steele, Program Associate, National Writing Project; David ten Have, Lead on Business Strategy, Makey Makey

At the Orange County (Fla.) Library System, we have made the preservation of local history a focal point of our reference work. Orlando Memory is a digital scrapbook and archive of the history of the citizens of Orlando. With the decline in newspaper obituaries, EPOCH (Electronically Preserving Obituaries as Cultural Heritage) was developed as a digital repository of user-contributed obituary information. Attendees will learn about the importance of community engagement in local history and how staff can reach out to community members and start their own online local history project to share with future generations.

We asked for your feedback, and we got it! ALA is influential and great for networking -- but we can also be too complex, sometimes bureaucratic, and we send a lot of email. Well, we heard you loud and clear, and we are working on it. Help us stay on track. Through a series of “kitchen table conversations” at the 2015 Annual Conference, attendees will gather to dig deeper into the ALA member experience. Topics may include joining and renewing, reducing email “chatter,” and making sure you get the information that matters most to you. You do the talking; we’ll be there to listen, learn, and then act. Please participate in the conversation and help us shape a new ALA together.

Join us for this exciting President's Program.
In this presentation, Professor Wolf will explore three themes (short stories): The transition from a literary to a digital culture--- with its concomitant effects on the changing reading brain; the beauty and the threats of the digital milieu on the next generation of readers; and the role of stewardship played by the Library in the preservation of "deep reading" in our culture.

The gap in opportunities for different races in America remains extreme. Nowhere is this more evident than our nation’s top public schools. In New York City, where blacks and Hispanics make up 70% of the city’s school-aged population, they represent less than 5% at the city’s most elite public high schools. Meanwhile Asian Americans make up as much as 73%. This documentary follows a dozen racially and socioeconomically diverse 8th graders as they fight for a seat at one of these schools. Their only way in: to ace a single standardized test.
Runtime: 77 minutes
Preview: http://www.testedfilm.com/watch/

Monday, June 29 - 11:00am

How is making a picture book different from making a graphic novel? And how is making a graphic novel different from making a young adult novel? Join Lark Pien and Jenni Holm in the discussion on authorship, audiences, and exploration of genres and formats in storytelling.

Barefoot to Avalon
From New York Times notable author David Payne comes a memoir of brotherhood, sibling rivalry and sibling love, of mental illness and the torments a family can hold silent and carry across generations. Payne will be on hand to sign advance galleys.

The Divine Art of Dying
THE DIVINE ART OF DYING explores the unique moment when seriously ill people choose to turn toward death. Combining personal stories with solid research on palliative and hospice care, it provides a well-integrated look at the spiritual dimensions of living fully when death is near. Filled with insights from the world’s great wisdom traditions along with references from literature, movies, and current culture, it helps identify the life decisions the dying one and his or her loved ones must make, and what their caregivers can expect.

Author of four previous novels including The Age of Dreaming, which was nominated for the LA Times Book Prize, Lost Canyon is the latest joining her accomplishments. Join her as she describes the dangers and twists of her characters backpacking through the High Sierra.